Select Local Merchants

Follow your nose to Icing On The Cake for an always needed sweet treat.
Low-fat alternatives are not available, however, so make sure your waistband has some wiggle room.
Casual dining at its best, Icing On The Cake customers are free to enjoy themselves in jeans and a T-shirt.
Catering from Icing On The Cake will take your party to the next level.
Parking is accessible and not far from the bakery.
Prices tend towards the moderate side, with the average tab at Icing On The Cake running under $30 per person.

At Food Bazaar in Bridgeport, you can stock up on all of your grocery items that you need for the week.
Whether you're cooking for yourself or for your family, some canned goods from here are a great side choice for lunch or dinner.
The seasonings and spices here will make any cook feel like a true chef. Pick some up today.
Food Bazaar's selection of bread goes great with any meal you were planning on making.
Ready, set, fish! For heart-healthy fare, super fresh seafood is readily available.
Whether you cook it or eat it raw, the produce from Food Bazaar will be tasty no matter what.
If rushing out the door is your morning routine, be sure to pick up a box of cereal for a quick and easy breakfast solution.
When you don't have time to grab lunch or dinner, these tasty snacks will hold you over until you can take a break.
For a sampling of the best meats, you'll want to head here directly without delay.
When you're trying to upgrade your cooking, adding flavor is essential. Create supple and tarter flavors by exploring the wonders vinegar and oil can add to your cuisine by shopping for them here.
For dairy lovers out there, this store does dairy right, so make sure to pick up some on your next trip.
Dive into dinner and a movie without dirtying a single dish! A frozen meal will make things super simple seven days a week.
Sip on the caffeinated treats offered by Food Bazaar's impressive coffee and tea connection.
Do you have a new pasta recipe that you've been dying to try? Pick up some noodles and treat yourself to a tasty dish.
The frozen food offered here is so delicious you won't even be able to tell it wasn't home-cooked.
Make sure you always have the ingredients to make a delicious dessert on hand.
When the heat gets the best of you, water is more important than ever. Cool off no matter where you are with a bottle from Food Bazaar.
The drinks available here are a great way to restore your body's natural balance, so start sipping.
Endless parking options are readily available close to Food Bazaar.
Fresh food that lasts longer is just asking to be bought. Find it at Bridgeport's Food Bazaar.

One of the better-priced delis in Bridgeport, visitors of Pombal Bakery won't sacrifice their wallet for a good meal and delightful experience. The nice atmosphere and reasonable prices allow customers to focus on what matters: the fantastic food.
Thanks to its outdoor seating, the restaurant is a fantastic option when the New England weather is cooperative. There's no particular required attire, so feel free to dress comfortably. Also, though the overall price can be a bit on the low side, you won't be sacrificing any quality. In fact, you should be able to enjoy a good meal for $11 or $12, and can probably get in and out for $8 if you try.
With healthy items on the menu, there really is something for every preference and if you're on the lookout for the perfect spot for family or friends, it's been reviewed as a solid option for large groups and kids. In addition to its quick service (take-out is available), the restaurant also offers delivery, and can even cater an event for you.
All things considered, a trip to Pombal Bakery is definitely worthwhile.

Enjoy blissful bites at H and H Bakery and Restaurant, one of the city's premier bakeries.
When you're ready to pig out, H and H Bakery and Restaurant is ready to serve you the scrumptious food you're craving.
Show up in sneakers or a suit at H and H Bakery and Restaurant, where dining in comfort is of utmost importance.
Love the food so much you want to serve it at your next soiree? No problem — H and H Bakery and Restaurant offers catering.
Patrons will love the number of street and lot parking options close to H and H Bakery and Restaurant.
Prices at H and H Bakery and Restaurant are super affordable.
H and H Bakery and Restaurant offers a wide variety of payment options, including payment by major credit card.

Enjoy freshly baked bread, muffins, cakes and more at Nice N Fresh Bakery.
Nice N Fresh Bakery does not prepare their menu with low-fat items, though, so those following a strict diet may have better luck elsewhere.
Catering makes it easier to organize any event, and Nice N Fresh Bakery will ensure that it is delicious.
There is parking close to the bakery.
Store your bike safely at one of the main bike racks near Nice N Fresh Bakery.
You won't find better prices in town than at Nice N Fresh Bakery, so grab all the snacks you can carry.

Buon appetito! Eat your heart out at Luigi's Italian Pastry, where the freshest, five-star fare will fill any Italian appetite.
Low-fat is one factor and amazing taste is another. Come see which wins out at Luigi's Italian Pastry.
You can also have Luigi's Italian Pastry cater your next event.
Endless parking options are readily available close to Luigi's Italian Pastry.
Most items on the menu are reasonably priced, so expect to spend around $30 per person at Luigi's Italian Pastry.

Groupon Guide

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, you might find yourself feeling feelings. But before you go blaming your heart for this sudden influx of warm fuzzies, consider this: your body’s real love epicenter may be located a little lower (and to the back).The adrenal glands—located right above the kidneys—are responsible for managing the body’s fight or flight response, releasing adrenaline, cortisol, and aldosterone in times of stress. They also secrete a bit of dopamine—the chemical that triggers the feeling of euphoria that some interpret as love. And so, this Valentine’s Day, why not give your sweetheart or crush a gift that comes, not from the heart, but from the real source of your love? To help, we came up with a DIY for creating an anatomically-correct adrenal gland cookie that’s sure to get their neurotransmitters transmitting.What You Need:Your favorite cookie recipe (and all the ingredients it requires) Frosting in the following colors: red, black, blue, and yellow Cookie sheet Frosting decorating tip for creating smooth lines Frosting decorating tip for creating texture Small frosting spatulaWhat You Do:1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 2. Follow the recipe for your favorite cookies. 3. Hand roll the dough into a patty approximately 3 inches in diameter (this should yield a cookie that’s about 5-inches in diameter after baking). 4. Bake for 20–30 minutes (watch the center, it may take longer to bake depending on your oven). 5. Let the cookie cool for approximately 15 minutes. 6. To prevent the frosting from melting during application, first put the cookie in your refrigerator for about 45 minutes. 7. When it’s completely cool, create the black-and-white frosting base. Use the smooth tip and frost half the cookie with black frosting and half with white frosting. Smooth the frosting on both sides with the frosting spatula. 8. Using the red, yellow, and blue frosting, draw the horrible, yet adorable (adhorrible?) adrenal glands following the template below.9. Place the cookie in a box or a body organ transplant cooler to present the cookie to your Valentine. (Pro tip: be sure to not wrap the cookie in saran wrap, as the frosting will smear! And make sure to gift your creation in a box that is not too flat.)10. Stare at your Valentine without blinking until he or she finishes the cookie (optional).Top photo and video by Andrew Nawrocki, Groupon. Video edited by Mel Kassel, Groupon. Video music by Bensound. Video sound effect by freeSFX.Flirt with more fun Valentine's Day projects:Groupon's Free Platonic Valentine's Day CardsDo Your Valentine's Makeup in 15 Minutes Flat

There’s hardly a more perfect-looking dessert than a cake with fondant stretched smoothly across its surface. So it’s easy to see why the technique has become a mainstay at some of the poshest weddings, one that seems best reserved for expert pastry chefs.
But when we talked to master cake decorator Gabby Parisi, she assured us that even a beginner can create a fondant masterpiece. And she should know—Parisi has honed her skills working and teaching hands-on classes at Cake Boss star Buddy Valastro’s New Jersey bakeries. Here’s what she had to say about why everyone should experiment with fondant (and, for the true novice, what exactly fondant is).
Fondant is more like dough than icing.
“Fondant is like sugar dough. It comes in all colors, or you can dye it,” Gabby said. “We actually sell the same fondant we use [at Carlo’s Bakery]. You can also order it online, or get it at basically any craft store, or make it at home.”
It’s easy to work with …
“People find fondant intimidating because the tools and know-how aren’t readily available, but when you come to the class, you realize it’s even easier than working with buttercream [icing],” she said. “It’s super-easy once you know all the tricks. You can do almost anything—it’s really kind of magical. Buddy likes to describe it as ‘the Houdini of cake decorating.’”
… partly because it’s so stretchy …
Kind of like Play-Doh. “It’s easy to work with because the texture is so familiar—it does feel like you’re playing with a childhood [toy].”
… and partly because you don’t need fancy tools.
“We use water and a paintbrush to apply flowers, fall leaves, bows, and other shapes. … For the most part, we like to use tools that make it easy to redo at home,” Gabby said. “We make it easily accessible—we don’t use any crazy tools that you would only find in a bakery, but ones you could easily find in a craft store.”
It’s not just for big cakes.
“It definitely works [for cupcakes]. We usually put buttercream on top of the cupcake, then fondant on top [of that]. It’s a really easy way to make a cupcake look super-professional.”
You can be as creative as you wish.
Because it stretches and molds so easily, you can use fondant to decorate more unconventional shapes, like the Cake Boss crew so famously does on their show. “Buddy always says the craziest cake we’ve ever made [with fondant] was the Transformer or the life-size NASCAR cake,” Gabby said.
Shop Groupon for a cake-decorating class at Carlo's, or deals on kitchenware:
Read more about desserts on the Guide:
Top-Secret Whiskey Soft-Serve Ice Cream
Roasted Marshmallows Can Do Better Than S'mores

Above: pastries, from left to right: capirotada, finikia, alfajor, and buchi.Baking treats is important during the holidays, but how many of us approach it with more than a half-hearted effort? It’s not all our fault—we’re super busy, and our families are driving us crazy.But still. All those plastic containers of rock-hard chocolate chip cookies at office parties. Those fruitcakes and rum cakes with black-hole densities, each bite requiring a gallon of milk to choke down. And what is that you’re leaving Santa this year? A “brownie” with M&Ms in it? You might as well glue some Milk Duds to a cinder block.This year, try pastry treats from around the world. Each has global roots and influences, and all of the pastries included in this article could be easily found and affordably bought at some of the best bakeries in Chicago.Below are four international pastries perfect for eating in large quantities during festive winter days. To grant some perspective on each treat, I asked my 60-something Aunt Helen, a former pastry chef and still world traveler, for her opinion on each baked good.Let the tour begin.Stop 1: Colombia for alfajorPETER: Let’s start our journey in Colombia. Mekato’s has cases and cases filled with popular pastries from South America, and alfajores themselves are enjoyed across the continent. Their traditional recipe is a bit different in Colombia, though it still consists of two butter cookies pressed and held together by a confection made from heating sweetened milk to a thicker texture (dulce de leche or, in Colombia, a version called arequipe, with a texture more like custard). The treats are finished with a dusting of powdered sugar and often with shaved coconut, too. What do you think, Aunt Helen?AUNT HELEN: Oh, this is one of my favorites! I learned to make it while I was traveling with your uncle. It’s not hard to make either the cookies or dulce de leche. And you can make big batches of alfajores easily. Such an exciting trip, backpacking across the continent. We met some wonderful people. I learned all about alfajores from one family in particular we stayed with. They were the same ones who showed us the path to the city of gold.PETER: The what?AUNT HELEN: The city ... down the road. From where they lived.PETER: OK ... let’s move on.Stop 2: Vietnam and the Philippines for buchiPETER: Buchi has many other names and hails from China originally, but today it can be found throughout Asia. As other cultures adopted the pastry, they added their own touches to the sweet. La Patisserie’s take is closest to the Filipino and Vietnamese version. Made from rice-flour dough and coated in sesame seeds, buchi is both crisp and chewy, and its hollow middle is commonly filled with a sweet black bean, red bean, or lotus paste. Eating only one of these at a time is really not an option—they’re way too good. Your thoughts, Aunt Helen?AUNT HELEN: I really like this one, too! I spent some time in Southeast Asia in the late '80s. I wanted to get away and visit somewhere I’d never been. Needless to say, it was an incredible trip. The local cultures throughout the region were fascinating, and of course the food was amazing. Buchi is sold pretty much everywhere there. The best I ever ate was actually the night I had to parachute onto a small island to recover a—PETER: Parachute?AUNT HELEN: Yes ... I took parachuting lessons.PETER: Oh. But why at night? And what were you “recovering”?AUNT HELEN: Hm, I can’t remember. Certainly not a powerful ancient relic.PETER: Right.Stop 3: Greece for finikiaPETER: Finikia are basically the best pastry ever. The cookies are made with flour, butter, orange zest, cinnamon, and sugar. Then after baking they get a dip in a boiling honey mixture and, once cooled, are sprinkled with walnuts. When they’re done, they’re perfectly crumbly and moist. Pan Hellenic in Greektown makes terrific finikia as delicious as the home-baked ones I enjoyed growing up. I guess we’re biased about them, though, aren’t we, Aunt Helen?AUNT HELEN: It’s true, our whole family is from Greece, so how could we possibly say anything disparaging about perhaps the best Greek pastry of them all? It’s always been my favorite, even more than baklava.PETER: I agree! Learning to make finikia is like a rite of passage in our family.AUNT HELEN: Speaking of which, has your mother mentioned anything to you about Ulysses’s bow yet?PETER: No, why?AUNT HELEN: No reason.Stop 4: Mexico for capirotadaPETER: Though traditionally served during Lent, capirotada is too amazing to eat only once a year. Like its other pastries, Artemio’s bakes capirotada fresh each morning and offers it year-round. Mexican bread pudding can be made in a number of ways, but it usually begins with a toasted bolillo (similar to a baguette) soaked in syrup made with cane sugar and spices. Typical ingredients added to it include dried apples, raisins, and apricots, as well as pecans, almonds, and walnuts. Aged cheese is also melted into the dish, infusing it with a rich texture.AUNT HELEN: Ah, I love capirotada: it’s everything fruitcake wishes it could be. I eat it all the time when vacationing in Mexico. When I visit, I like to stay in little hotels right on the beach. Right on the Pacific. I remember one summer I was there I bought some worthless old boat and fixed it up with my friend, Red. We fixed it up like new and went out charter fishing.PETER: That’s the ending to The Shawshank Redemption.AUNT HELEN: Never heard of it. What is that, a book of poetry?ReviewThere you have it. The honest reviews and well-intentioned ramblings about four wonderful baked goods. Each is decidedly nontraditional and sure to turn heads in the best way. Your friends, family, and even Santa will be grateful.Has anybody seen Aunt Helen?Photo by Andrew Nawrocki, Groupon